Thailand - Phuket

So the Mass exodus after the full-moon party took us to Phuket.


View Ko Phangan to Phuket in a larger map

Here is a flow of consciousness that I sent to my friend Jen about our less-than-ideal trip:
You know when you book a trip to take and you find out you're going to arrive in a certain place by 930 pm and then the taxi is late and the boat is late and you get off your boat with the rest of the herd of travelers that don't know what's going on and the people directing the hundreds of people aren't very forthcoming with information and they wouldn't be able to communicate it anyway because they don't speak the same language and you get herded onto a bus that is old and dirty and water is dripping from the airconditioning unit in the ceiling and when the bus stops quickly a bucketfull of water pours out of the ceiling onto the seat (BEHIND yours, thankfully) and the bus drops you off at some dodgy and dirty restaurant/travel agent and tells you to wait for the next bus with WAY too many people and only one bathroom that no one can use because some guy ran in there with a hangover/motion sickness and locked the door and then you're told to get on a "songthaew" which is really just a pickup with two rows of seats in the back and you are driven by Evil Kanevil reincarnated through the pouring rain to another dodgy restaurant/travel agent where there are even more people standing around not knowing what's going on and after another hour of waiting you're told to get on one of the two busses but people aren't paying attention/understanding so everyone goes to the first bus with all their luggage and after you load your pack it turns out that there are no seats left because half the people that are on the bus already should be on the second bus so you have to take your stuff off the bus and get in the other bus and the people on the first bus get paranoid because so many bags are getting taken off so they want to see their own bags so they make the people sort through all the luggage and make sure that everyone's is there then the buses finally leave and after a 3 hour drive they take a 20 minute rest stop which turns into almost an hour and you get back on the bus for the final hour of the journey and get to yet another/travel agent where you are packed into a minivan and taken to the hotel called Banana Sombrero (doesn't sound very thai) to check into a nice big room with a big bed and airconditioner but by now it's already 2:30 AM (5 hours after your scheduled arrival time) so you're exstatic by the thought that you'll finally be able to go to sleep and you turn off the light but it's just as bright in the room because there's a neon sign right outside your window and you only have white curtains and it blocks absolutely no light and it turns out the aircon is broken and it actually seems hotter in the room and 4 hours after you go to bed someone starts banging on doors in the hallway but there's nothing to dampen the sound so it sounds like they're banging on your face so you get so frustrated that you storm down the hall and pound on the next door and when he comes to the door you just say "everything ok?" hoping he'll get the point and shutup so you go back into your room and find that it's even hotter and brighter because the sun is now coming up directly into the bedroom and you almost want to cry because all you want is to go to sleep in a cold, dark, quiet cave but you can't......?

Phuket

We had heard a lot of hype about Phuket with it's beautiful resorts and pristine beaches. Since we are on a backpacker's budget instead of a leisure traveler's budget, we didn't get to stay in those hotels or see the beaches.

When I woke up in the morning (very early morning thanks to the sun and banging) I took a walk down the street to see the beach. I passed bar after bar with bad smells coming from the sludge that was running through the gutters and being hassled about getting transport or a suit or a massage or something else I didn't want. The beach was close to the hotel but it had big red flags and signs that prohibited swimming because the current was too strong.

I walked back to the hotel and told Celia we were checking out and going to another part of the island.

We made our way to Phuket Town, the more historical and subdued part of the island. We found a quaint guesthouse and set out to do some exploring.

I didn't even take pictures.

We left the next day.